Hopeful signs of an Irish spring

CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS, The Examiner's Washington bureau chief.

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, February 26, 1995

1995-02-26 04:00:00 PDT IRELAND -- SOMETHING GOOD, if uncertain, happened this past week in Ireland. Those of us Americans with roots on that trou bled island must be forgiven for emphasizing the good and downplaying the uncertainty that attends any move toward peace, especially in a land that has known so little.

There is, even the pessimists must admit, something good afoot in Ireland today, something different and fresh in the air.

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister John Major met with his counterpart in the Republic of Ireland, John Bruton, to announce a "joint framework" for peace and reconciliation in the six counties ruled by Britain in Northern Island.

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This document is a starting point for talks this spring, not just between the London and Dublin governments but between Northern Ireland's two competing communities: the majority Unionists, who see themselves as part of Great Britain, and the minority Nationalists, who seek to rejoin the rest of Ireland.

The "joint framework" is built on two pillars, both of them new.

First, a willingness by London to abdicate any strategic, political or economic interest in Northern Island.

Second, a willingness by the Republic of Ireland to give up its territorial claim to the six Ulster counties that have been separated from the southern 26 counties since the Irish Revolution led in 1921 to separation of what became the Irish Free State (later the republic) from Northern Ireland.

Both are dramatic, historic concessions.

Dermot Gallagher, Dublin's ambassador here, took some time Thursday to explain why all this is happening. Before a crackling fireplace at the Irish residence here, he envisioned an emerging Irish spring where Unionists and Nationalists work together for the good of all.

The reason for his optimism, Gallagher explained, is that things have changed in Ireland. Yes, in Ireland. They began to change in 1969, when "The Troubles" erupted in Northern Ireland. From that violence arose two realities.

One was direct British rule. London realized that the existing Belfast government had to go, that its brutal repression of the Catholic minority was never going to change.

The second result of "The Troubles" was the realization in the Republic of Ireland that the Unionist majority in Northern Ireland saw itself as British. That fact needed to be faced squarely if there was to ever be a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

In December 1993, the Downing Street Declaration was signed by Major and Albert Reynolds, then the Irish prime minister. That document set forth in clear terms the principles that would guide the "Joint Framework" announced by the two governments this week in Belfast.

Britain declared it has "no selfish strategic or economic interest" in the six Ulster counties.

And the Irish government agreed it "would be wrong to attempt to impose a united Ireland in the absence of the freely given consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland."

This opened the way for this week's announcement in Belfast by the two prime ministers. It promises the first real cooperation between Northern Ireland, which will be governed by a new parliament, and the Republic of Ireland, which has yielded its territorial claims.

Wondrously, the people of Ireland, including those of Unionist loyalties, face the prospect of a springtime of economic and political progress with the hope that violence and bitterness are consigned to those many dark winters past. &lt;

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